SCHINDLER’S NOSE IS BUSTED BUT HE STILL HAS THE LAST LAUGH
WHO SAYS Germans have no sense of humour? Huddersfield hero Chris Schindler took a sickening elbow to the nose and joked: ‘Maybe it’s back in shape now!’ The Terriers’ centre half had headed a deserved equaliser for David Wagner’s battlers to cancel out in-form Sam Vokes’s opener before b being hit by a double Burnley wallop. First, a flailing outstretched arm from fr a backpedalling Vokes unintentionally u caught Schindler flush fl on the bridge of the nose. With blood pouring, a clearly dazed Schindler bravely stayed on his feet to stand in the way of a fierce follow-up drive from Ashley Westwood. This had a Jackson Pollock effect when the ball cannoned into the defender’s wounded face. Welcome to Turf Moor. ‘My nose wasn’t the prettiest before so maybe it’s good for me,’ Schindler joked. The 28-year-old, whose 66th-minute header was his first Premier League goal, was down for six minutes before returning to the field as Huddersfield sought an unlikely winner. ‘It was quite a strong hit,’ he said. ‘I knew something was coming down my nose but I was not sure if it was blood or sweat. I saw the ball was still in a dangerous area so I got my head on it. I felt the dripping straight away and was sure it was blood, so that’s why I went to ground.’ Wales international Vokes apologised immediately and insisted there was no malice involved. Schindler was ready to give him the benefit of the doubt, although he hinted that it was part and parcel of the hosts’ modus operandi. ‘I don’t want to say that he did it on purpose,’ he said. ‘They’re a physical team, strong guys and they try to free them up, use their arms. Obviously my nose was in the way this time though.’ A match that promised little other than fulfilling the last slot on Match of the Day delivered plenty of talking points in front of watching Premier League chief Richard Scudamore. In the first half, Huddersfield striker Laurent Depoitre was booked for perhaps the most outrageous dive of the season so
far. A shameless, shambolic attempt to win a penalty saw the Belgian try to initiate contact with James Tarkowski before dropping to the floor theatrically. For his troubles he got the landing Burnley and England man’s studs, a deserved earful and the yellow card. In the build-up to this match, Sean Dyche, the Burnley manager, suggested that the authorities had told him to stop using the word ‘cheating’ when talking about simulation. This incident left him furious again. ‘Don’t ask me about diving!’ he shouted to reporters on his way to the press room. When he was asked about the dive, Dyche said: ‘The lad has been booked, but nothing will happen now in terms of sanctions.’ Dyche’s side, seeking a third straight win following a disappointing start to the season, had taken the lead on 20 minutes, when Vokes headed assist machine Johann Berg Gudmundsson’s inviting cross into the bottom corner. It seemed as though the revival would continue but the plucky, winless visitors, bottom of the table at kick-off, responded well. Chances came and went before they eventually got a point to take back over the hills when Schindler nodded in a centre moments before getting whacked. ‘It was one of those,’ said a seemingly genuine Vokes, who followed Schindler into the mixed zone. ‘I was backing in and I caught him with a straight elbow. I apologised to him afterwards. There was nothing intentional.’ Was the apology accepted? ‘Well, he seemed all right with me,’ said Vokes. ‘Unless he has just said something else to you.’